Dissertation Research: Did predation Drive Micro- and Macroevolutionary Diversification in Mosquitofish?

论文研究：捕食是否推动了食蚊鱼的微观和宏观进化多样化？

• 批准号: 0608259
• 负责人: Jonathan Losos
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-06-15 至 2007-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0608259&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Did; predation; Drive

This project will test the hypothesis that divergent natural selection between predator regimes has driven adaptive divergence between populations within a species (microevolution) and between species within a genus (macroevolution). Using a biomechanical approach, the study will test predictions of how natural selection in different predator regimes should favor different body forms and swimming capabilities in livebearing fish of the genus Gambusia (mosquitofishes). The project will use comparative analyses to assess evolutionary changes in body shape, prolonged swimming performance, and fast-start swimming performance associated with colonization of low- and high-predation environments. The study will further examine the genetic basis of trait differences, and test biomechanical predictions of morphology-performance relationships within and between species (revealing the causal connections between body form and swimming). The methodological approach of the study should reveal the relative importance of natural selection and random genetic drift in the evolution of traits at the micro- and macroevolutionary scales.The study quantitatively examines a fundamental question in evolutionary biology-whether processes driving microevolutionary divergence can explain macroevolutionary patterns. The work should provide an important contribution to the study of adaptive evolution, particularly the role of predation in evolutionary diversification and the utility of a biomechanical approach in understanding the functional basis of adaptive divergence. The project will further help train several students in both laboratory- and field-based research, and be widely disseminated to the scientific community, as well as the broader public.

该项目将检验以下假设：捕食者制度之间的不同自然选择驱动了物种内种群之间（微观进化）和属内物种之间（宏观进化）的适应性分歧。该研究将使用生物力学方法来测试不同捕食者制度中的自然选择如何有利于食蚊鱼属活鱼的不同身体形态和游泳能力的预测。 该项目将利用比较分析来评估与低捕食和高捕食环境的殖民相关的体形、长时间游泳表现和快速启动游泳表现的进化变化。该研究将进一步研究性状差异的遗传基础，并测试物种内部和物种之间形态表现关系的生物力学预测（揭示身体形态和游泳之间的因果关系）。该研究的方法论应该揭示自然选择和随机遗传漂变在微观和宏观进化尺度上性状进化中的相对重要性。该研究定量地检验了进化生物学中的一个基本问题——驱动微观进化分歧的过程是否可以解释宏观进化模式。这项工作应该为适应性进化的研究做出重要贡献，特别是捕食在进化多样化中的作用以及生物力学方法在理解适应性分歧的功能基础方面的效用。该项目将进一步帮助培训几名学生进行实验室和实地研究，并广泛传播给科学界以及更广泛的公众。